YOUNG JUSTICE S2 EP.12 REVIEW: ARSENAL

Episode 12 of Young Justice,“True Colors,” pushes the story line forward with more Beetles and old characters come back to take down The Light and The Reach.

Episode 12, “True Colors,” pushes the Young Justice: Invasion story line forward. We are given new questions to answer as well as new and old characters being introduced in this episode. We learn more about The Reach’s and Light’s plans to dominate the world. Here’s the breakdown:

The Reach is involved in the Beetles finding their hosts.

There is a conflict within The Light’s organization that will be the organization’s weakness.

Red Robin is given leadership of the Alpha covert team to investigate The Reach’s & Lex Luthor’s genetically alternated foods to cure worldwide hunger.

SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT DON’T READ BEYOND THIS POINT.

Green Beetle

If you weren’t a fan of Blue Beetle or anything involving him, you’re definitely going to become a fan after episode 12. Young Justice: Invasion will be focusing more on Blue Beetle and a bit on his universe such as other Beetles like Green Beetle. The Green Beetle was introduced in this week’s episode as a Martian Beetle host named B’arzz O’oomm. As a new character, he explains how The Reach spread the Scrabs throughout the universe to different planets. This explains why Blue Beetle is a major threat to the team, but also a key element to the possible survival of Earth against the dreaded alien invasion by The Reach. As for The Light’s organization, Sportsmaster is still sore about Artemis’ death and wants vengeance against Aqualad. This soreness causes The Light to get a new enforcer for the organization, which creates a conflict and shows an open weakness for The Light. Since Sportsmaster was not compensated for Artemis’ death, he has the ability to cause mayhem and distract The Light from working with The Reach. Will this give the team enough edge to stop The Reach and The Light in the near future? Let’s hope so because it is much needed at this point.

Arsenal

As for the Beetle universe, it’s awesome to see the show expanding more into Blue Beetle. Brandon Vietti (producer) has a huge love for Blue Beetle so this doesn’t surprise anyone to see more Beetles popping up in this show. The Green Beetle is actually an original character by Brandon Vietti . The Beetles are actually pushing the story along quite nicely, and it seems that Impulse doesn’t know or hasn’t seen the Green Beetle before. So, the fact that Impulse doesn’t recognize the Green Beetle could mean that the battle with The Reach might be successful. However, the Green Beetle’s involvement with the team does not change the outcome of Earth’s future as seen in a previous episode. Anyway, new and old characters have sparked up in this episode. Speedy is back as Arsenal and he does show off his bad ass side! His new arm is cooler and it caters to his name quite well. Arsenal is a bit obsessed with Lex Luthor, but this is to be expected after what Luthor did to him. In this episode, Arsenal’s personality flares on screen making him very likable for those who like badass heroes. Red Robin has a problem with Arsenal’s lack of authority, but covers for him when Nightwing asked him about Arsenal’s cooperation in the Alpha covert team. Nightwing is testing if Arsenal can be trusted in the team and also tests Red Robin’s ability to lead a team. Of course, Red Robin covers for Arsenal because if he didn’t Red Robin would not appear as an effective leader. Nightwing is falling more into the shadows of the undercover operations so his character will be seen less throughout the show. Hopefully Red Robin will become a new lead character for the Batman fans.

Red Robin & Alpha team

Another bad ass character enters the scene as well, Deathstroke has come to Young Justice. If you’re a fan of the character, you won’t be disappointed with how he’s presented in this episode. The character is updated and will become a sure fan favorite on the show if he’s given more dialogue. It’s surprising to see Young Justice allowing Deathstroke to use guns since DC Comics, Warner Bros., and DC Entertainment have vowed to tone down the “use of violence” and gun use. This might change in upcoming episodes of Young Justice, but for now we can dig Deathstroke’s badass appearance on the show.

Deathstroke

Now as a Batman fan, some might be asking this? If we’re given Arsenal, then will we get Red Hood on the show as well? It’s more of a probably not, but one can ask right? You really can’t say no since Ras Al Ghul is part of The Light’s organization. It would only be fitting to see Red Hood appear alongside Arsenal to take down both major contributors of The Light. The last time we saw Jason Todd, it was only for a snippet as an underground hologram remembering his status as the second Robin. So, will Jason Todd/Red Hood come back as a character for the show? You already have tons upon tons of minor characters, what will another cool character do to the story line of the show? One can hope to see another fan favorite, right?